Eking Out Hope In A Crippled Land

August 29, 1989|By Krzysztof W. Kasprzyk.

When Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Poland`s new prime minister, was in prison seven years ago for his Solidarity activities, a rumor raced around Warsaw that he was the first person in prison killed by the hated ZOMO riot troops.

At that time it was difficult to get any credible news. Now, of course, the whole world knows that Mazowiecki survived that long, dark night of Polish postwar history and was nominated for his new government post by his stony-faced oppressor of 1981, Communist boss Wojciech Jaruzelski.

Big headlines for Western newspapers! Poland, this unexhausted freedom fighter so terribly devastated by Leninist rules, takes a fragile step on the road back toward national prosperity!

Curiously, though, at least for Western readers, there is far less enthusiasm than might be expected. The disastrous economy and the daily unbearable heaviness of being leaves practically no room for hope and for the vital social energy necessary to give meaning to hope.

A simple change in government, nothing special in Western democracies, is unprecedented in Poland, but the Solidarity-dominated Cabinet that is ultimately formed will be a tiny wave in an ocean of rotten structures.

The pyramid of the loyal Communist bureaucracy remains untouched. There is no civil service; instead, the infamous nomenklatura caste enjoys privileges almost unchanged since the 1950s.

All right, you say, grass-roots activity is bubbling now; there are fresh signs of private investment, political movements are forming. Certainly true- but no significant feature of the entire Stalinist structure in Poland has disappeared. The computer is jammed.

While Solidarity`s revolution has released the national spirit and created enormous pressure for change, it`s still quite difficult to defend the idea that Communism in Poland is effectively evolving toward pluralistic democracy. Solidarity did win some power in the parliament-but the

administrative power of the old system is still there.

More than four decades of Communist domination left innumerable wounds in every aspect of Poland`s daily life. Scarcity is normal, the availability of anything is abnormal. People do not live in Poland, they ``organize`` their accommodations within a jungle of the absurd built on authoritarian principles.

Public institutions have long been paralyzed by incompetence, corruption and the familiar ``just say no`` of the apparatchiks. And the powers in place have not surrendered; the Communist Party found itself more in an ambush than on the path of self-reform.

Yet even the perception that a death blow is being dealt to Leninist dogma comes up against the web of Communist heritage everywhere.

``Decommunizing`` has a long way to go when the army and police, devoted guardians of the system, remain in the same hands.

Indeed, it seems much easier to impose a dictatorship than to convert one into democracy. Unlike authoritarian right-wing regimes, which always saw some value in a market-oriented economy, a major feature of the Communist utopia is economic destruction.

That is the starting point. But is there any other way? No matter what we say, Poland now has the pioneering role as a case study in the abolition of Communism. Had the nation`s economy been in better shape, the experiment could be less painful, but perhaps the entire West European community will see the value of the political profit to be gained by aiding the new government.

It has fallen to Tadeusz Mazowiecki, erstwhile jailbird and thoughtful and independent intellectual, to cut the ribbon that blocks the door to post- Communist reality. The economy of Poland is so crippled that it may readily jeopardize Mazowiecki`s mission; at the very least, there is no way to avoid blood, toil, sweat and tears. The government that Solidarity is forming is the only one that can tell the nation this, for it is the only government led by people chosen by people.